Two days ago, in response to a question from D. A. King, the president of the Dustin Inman Society, former congressman, Libertarian presidential candidate, and current Republican congressional candidate Bob Barr said he would work to pass federal legislation that mandated the use of E-Verify for all employers nationwide.

The survey itself appeared in the Marietta Daily Journal like this:

*Q – Given that it is a federal offense to knowingly hire and employ illegal labor, as a member of congress, would you work to pass federal legislation that mandated use of E-Verify for all employers, nationwide? *Note: this is a “YES” or “NO” question.

Barry Loudermilk: “YES”

Bob Barr: “YES”

That is interesting. It is interesting because prior to answering that question on Wednesday, Bob Barr’s campaign website had this:

It is important also for businesses to hire only those eligible to work in the U.S., not illegal aliens, and requirements that businesses take reasonable measures to ensure persons they hire are lawfully in this country are appropriate and necessary. This responsibility, however, should not in Bob’s opinion force American businesses to obtain permission of the federal government before they can hire a person; a concern that extends to the “e-verify” program which raises problems of a form of national identification card.

Forty-eight hours after answering “YES” to D.A. King, the website changed that paragraph to this:

It is important also for businesses to hire only those eligible to work in the U.S., not illegal aliens, and requirements that businesses take reasonable measures to ensure persons they hire are lawfully in this country are appropriate and necessary. Bob’s hesitancy in the past to endorse a mandatory E-Verify system was based largely on the unreliability of the system. The system has been much improved and therefore now lends itself to such a requirement.

What is interesting is that the E-Verify system has not been changed in the past year.

On June 24, 2013, Barr’s position as reported by other media outletswas as his website stated until sometime in the last day or so:

It is important also for businesses to hire only those eligible to work in the U.S., not illegal aliens, and requirements that businesses take reasonable measures to ensure persons they hire are lawfully in this country are appropriate and necessary. This responsibility, however, should not in Bob’s opinion force American businesses to obtain permission of the federal government before they can hire a person; a concern that extends to the “e-verify” program which raises problems of a form of national identification card.

In fact, in 2010 Bob Barr called “E-Verify” big brother-ism. In 2011, Bob Barr also opposed E-Verify. In May of 2013, Bob Barr opposed E-Verify.

Hell, last week Bob Barr opposed E-Verify.

But after pandering on Wednesday, Bob has changed his mind and now declares “The system has been much improved and therefore now lends itself to such a requirement.”

Except the system has not been improved since Bob Barr opposed it in May of 2013. The only thing that has changed is Bob Barr is in a runoff and wants the votes of people opposed to comprehensive immigration reform.

It’s just so sad to see a good man so desperate to return to Congress that he’ll say or do anything to get elected.